906-127
August 20, 2004

After the panels are fit, they are attached with ounce and 1/2 mat strips.

At Porsche, they didn't quite take the time we do installing these panels. They didn't need to because these were throw away race cars. Today, it's a different story. These babies are worth their weight in gold so we try to do a little nicer job than original.

The tape borders the mat straps which are only for positioning, not for resin detail.

Andy and I are in a tag team. He is smearing cabosil on the bottom side of the tube because it strengthens the bond between the floor and the tube (Porsche didn't do this). This can't be seen so we get away with it. The reason we do this is because if you stand near a patch on an original floorboard, the bond between the patch and the floor would separate, then the floor would become loose to the chassis. It is a lot more difficult for this to happen with the cabosil applied.

When the tape is removed and the material has cured, we sand and paint before the body is installed.

The dixie cups are full of lead shot which keeps the panel flat during the bonding process. You can see that anytime we build one of these prototypes, the car is always sitting on 3/4" finished plywood (cabinet grade). This keeps all of our fiberglass laminations flat.

The finishing touches and then paint.

Andy has sanded the complete cockpit with 220 grit paper and is applying the gray paint.

We do this before the body is attached because we can. The other option is to crawl inside the car (after the body is attached) and kill our necks, backs, butts...you get the picture. Next week we'll show you the body installation.

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